| A | B |
|---|
| Legislative Branch | makes the laws |
| Executive Branch | enforces/carries out laws; consists of President, his/her cabinet and Vice President |
| Judicial Branch | interprets/explains laws; makes sure the laws are fair/constitutional |
| Checks and Balances | prevents any one of the three branches from becoming too powerful |
| Congress | House of Respresentative(proportional representation) amd Senate(equal representation |
| popular sovereignty | "the people rule" |
| limited governemnt | "nobody is above the law" |
| ratification | official approval |
| Federalists | Americans who favored the Constitution |
| Antifederalists | Americans who worried about the loss of power held by the states when the Constitution became law |
| Bill of Rights | The first ten amerndments to the Constitution |
| Preamble | Introduction to the Constitution |
| House of Representatives | 435 voting members & 5 non-voting members; proportional representation; power to impeach officials, intorduce all spending bills, head is the Speaker of the House |
| Senate | 100 members; power to hold impeachment trials, approve presidental appointments, ratify treaties, head is the U.S. Vice President |
| Representative | must have been a U.S. citizen for at least 7 years, must be at least 25 years old, serves a two year term |
| Senator | must have been a U.S. citizen for at least 9 years, must be at least 30 years old, serves a 6 year term |
| Bill | Head of the proposed law/idea for a law |
| President | must be native born citizen, must be at least 35 years old, must be a U.S. resident for 14 years, a two term limit |
| Powers of the President | Commnader in Chief of armed forces, fill vacancies in the Senate, make treaties, grant reprieves and pardons, apponits ambassadors, judges,cabinet members |
| Duties of the President | report toCongress(Stateof the Union), enforce the laws, receive ambassadors |
| primaries | state-wide elections between rivals from the same political party |
| Electoral College | group of people who meet in December following a presidental election in order to elect a new president |
| elector | member of the electoral college |
| federal courts | system where judges decide whether the laws made by Congress and the rules made the executive branch are constitutional |
| Powers of the Federal Courts | rule on all questions about the Consitution, rule on laws of the U.S. and treaties made with other nations, has power in cases in which people from other nations are a party |
| Courts of Appeal | courts where people can go for another ruling if they don not agree with the verdict given by a lower court |
| verdict | decision given by a court |
